Companies

Description

Williams Companies is an American energy company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Its core business is natural gas processing and transportation, with additional petroleum and electricity generation assets. A Fortune 500 company, its common stock is a component of the S&P 500.

History

It was founded as Williams Brothers in 1908 by Miller and David Williams in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and soon expanded to building nationwide pipelines for natural gas and petroleum. The company relocated to Tulsa in 1919. In 1949, John H. Williams, a nephew of the founders, together with his brother Charles Williams and David's son David Williams Jr., bought the business from the founders; John H. Williams remained as president of the company until 1971 and CEO until 1979.

The company went public in 1957 under the Williams Brothers name. As it diversified in the 1970s, it was renamed The Williams Companies, Inc. Since 1997, their brand identity has been simplified to "Williams".

In 1966, Williams bought the then-largest petroleum products pipeline in America, known as the Great Lakes Pipe Line Company, for about $287 million. In 1982, it expanded into natural gas transportation with the purchase of Northwest Energy Company, and extended their reach to the East Coast with the 1995 purchase of Transco Energy Company.

In 2001, Williams acquired Barrett Resources, which provided them with additional national gas reserves.

In 2002, the company found itself in financial distress due to changed market conditions and the large debt of its subsidiary Williams Communications Group. The company obtained and paid off an emergency high interest loan from Warren Buffett to stay out of bankruptcy, and redirected its focus toward natural gas production, processing, and transportation as well as increasing its resource holdings. One of the moves it made around that time (2004) was the sale of two of Canada's largest natural gas straddle plants, and its interest in another to Inter Pipeline Fund for US$540 million.

In 2010, the company underwent a major restructuring that included a reorganization of its extensive pipeline holdings in Williams Partners LP. In October 2010, Williams and Williams Partners LP announced that chairman and chief executive officer Steve Malcolm would retire at the end of the year. The board of directors at Williams said it had elected Alan Armstrong to succeed Malcolm as CEO effective January 3, 2011. Armstrong had served as senior vice president of Williams since 2002.

On February 16, 2011, Williams' board of directors had approved pursuing a plan to separate the company's businesses into two stand-alone, publicly traded corporations. The plan calls for Williams to separate its exploration and production business via an initial public offering in third-quarter 2011 of up to 20 percent of its interest and, in 2012, a tax-free spinoff to Williams shareholders of its remaining interest. The company's former exploration and production business, WPX Energy Inc., began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Jan. 3, 2011. The spinoff was completed with the Dec. 31, 2011, distribution of one share of WPX Energy common stock for every three shares of Williams common stock. Williams became an infrastructure company, and many of its pipeline assets are held through the master limited partnership Williams Partners LP.

Rating GlobalNY.biz

Take place
general
№3843
general
Take place
area
№489
area

Mentions in the news

View all
3507

NEW YORK COMPANIES


New York business portal GlobalNY.biz includes a huge directory of organizations operating in New York. Here you can easily find all the necessary information about the company. The organization card contains a full info page with a detailed description of the company's activities, logo, contact details and a link to the organization's official website. The reader can also immediately familiarize himself with the staff of the company, see the latest press releases and news block, and also see what line of the rating the company occupies. The rating of a member of the GlobalNY.biz business portal is calculated based on the number of mentions in the New York news and posted press releases containing information about the organization's activities and its achievements. You can also rise in the rating by publishing vacancies, as well as the number of registered persons. At the same time, company representatives can independently see how many times the company's card has been viewed on GlobalNY.biz, as well as promptly correct the information.
We pay special attention to the multifunctionality of the "Companies" section. For your convenience, there is a search box, as well as an industry heading.
New York Business Portal is always up-to-date database of New York enterprises!
Alena Potapova

Development Director
Population
8159041078
Died this year
46036200
Born this year
113257200